Most of New York’s businesses that were affected by Hurricane Sandy have completed their recoveries and are back to business as usual. Some were hit so hard as to be left with a major deficit in their budgets, perhaps forever. Those that took the time to prepare and think out their backup strategies were the ones least affected, in some cases with no real downtime at all, even in blacked out regions. Firms that need to comply with SEC or other requirements may have already had Business Continuity plans in effect which outlined every action to take in an emergency. Others may simply have been able to think on their feet with the resources they had in place.

One thing seems consistent however. As we review the damage Sandy did to business it’s become clear that some of the normal ways we think of backup are no longer effective. Those that were weak have been outmoded as useless, and those that were considered robust would appear to be barely better than going down with the ship. In this post-sandy city, we must keep our collective minds above water and think clearly about how to make efficient, usable and accessible backups for our businesses.